Spending the Day with Evan and Evelyn

It is the first day of the school holidays for you and the morning was spent in Adventist Hospital. You both had appointments to see Dr Mary. Evelyn had her 2 injections and Rotavirus to take while it was time for Dr Mary to review your never ending cough.

We missed the appointment as both daddy and I were very tired from Evelyn's restless night. So we had a rather lengthy wait before it was our turn. As it was already quite late, we decided to pick up Evan's medicine later on.

We headed to the next stop, Adventure Zone. Yup, we're there again. A little birthday treat for you.

 

As it was lunch time, we decided to have lunch there. Mummy also decided to have a "coffee bath". Sigh.. spilled the whole cup of coffee on myself. Lunch was pizza and a club sandwich. You barely ate as you just wanted to spend time on the slides. As for Evelyn, you just enjoyed yourself watching the crowd and then fell asleep.

Evan's 7th Birthday Party

As usual your birthday was planned for the weekend. You had wanted an "Italian night" party, but since some guests could not take cheese, we opted for option #2, barbecue. The days leading to the party was madness. Daddy and I had to make trips to Cold Storage, Tesco and Jusco to buy the things needed. Ah Ma also was busy preparing the things for the barbecue.

Here's the picture of my little birthday boy:

While waiting for the food to be ready, you played with your cousins. Abigail was a little unhappy in this picture as she was losing in the game.

Here's chef daddy preparing the barbecue chicken:

Everyone sitting everywhere in the house, eating, chatting and laughing. I love the easy-going pace when we have parties at home. Less stressful. Even Evelyn was good about it. She got to take naps in between in her own comfy baby cot.

This of course is the "kiddy table". You picked the cups and plates for the party this year.

I love it that you're so excited that we're celebrating your birthday. Look at your excited face when it's time for the cake and song:

Isn't the little jelly car cute?

And finally.. opening the presents...

Happiness when you saw all the toys picked for you:

Our guests also went home with a little picture of you:

Reunion Finale with the Phuah's

The weekend was a celebration with the Phuah's. As usual Ah Ma cooked up a storm. Strangely I forgot to take a picture of the food.. Hmmm.. There was a special "menu" for the children too. You enjoyed your dinner and most of you even went for seconds. After that, it was play time for the children. Here are the 3 of you posing with the many guns you have. Ian is not in the picture.. he must have ran off to play with the other toys.

 Loved this picture of Boh-boh Poh, your two Tou-tou's and Ah Ma:

That evening, we were treated to coffee by our personal barista, daddy. Yummy coffee made from the new coffee machine:

On top of that, we had healthy dessert of ice-cream made from frozen fruits. Uncle Sin Tien brought his newly bought machine to make the ice-cream for us. Yummy..

As a surprise, we had a cake to celebrate Aunty Ean Na's birthday too. Here are you kids all excited to blow our the candle.. even before we started to sing the birthday song!

And once you've all helped yourselves to a piece of the chocolate decorating the cake, you all ran off to continue playing.

That's the last of the Chinese New Year celebrations for this year.

Chinese New Year in Ipoh

That morning we woke up at a leasurely pace as we were not having the lion dance this year. So we slowly woke up, had breakfast, did the usual round of giving and receiving ang pow. While chatting and hanging around, we also spend some time to take pictures.

 Daddy and Evelyn

 Our first family picture.

 Love this shot of the two of you

 The both of you with Ah Kong and Ah Ma

 All of us in one picture. Took this picture using tripod and timer. Turned out well.

Soon it was lunch time. As usual lunch was mee suah soup with fried egg. Yummy. 

The only picture we had of dinner was this of everyone doing the "lou sang".

Happy Chinese New Year

Reunion Dinner in Ipoh with the Ban's

As dinner was to be popiah and Ah Ma was going to buy the popiah skin for the reunion dinner, we only left for Ipoh on Saturday morning(the eve of Chinese New Year). Early that morning, Ah Ma and Ah Kong headed to Chowrasta market to buy the skin.

By the time they got back, we were still waking up! So after all was packed our two cars headed to Ipoh. Yup, we travelled in two cars as there were so many things to take, and this trip you both sat in your car seats. We reached Ipoh before Ah Kong and Ah Ma as they had to detour to buy some kuih.

By then, the wonderful cooks in the house had almost finished preparing (lots of cutting of the various vegetables) the ingredients for the popiah. Amazing!

Later that evening, I went to the kitchen to see them slowly stirring and mixing the many veggies into the one BIG cast-iron wok. Wow! Needs strong arms for this job. Ta-da.. here's the end result:

When it was dinner time, the table was set up in the main living room. And of course Evan helped out. My little helpful boy. I'm so proud of you.

Chim Poh gave you a tray so that you did not need to make so many trips to and from the kitchen. I was really worried that they little saucers might slip off the tray but you did a good job. Muakksss...  

Here is the food all ready and waiting to be eaten.

I'm drooling at the thought of this:

Here's the "bar" all ready for after-dinner drinks:

That night when we all went to sleep, someone decided to light up some firecrackers! Urghhh.. it woke us all up. Good thing you all went back to sleep easily.

First Reunion Dinner - With the Yeoh's

We had planned to go out for dinner.. but at the last minute on Saturday we decided to cook for the family instead. It would be easier as mei-mei was still so small and not easy to handle when we're out in the restaurant. So after everyone agreed on dinner at home, we rushed to Cold Storage to pick up what was needed for the dinner.

Daddy slaved in the kitchen the whole day with mummy helping while Kakak took care of Evelyn. You also had an important task. You were to be the waiter for the night and had to prepare the handwritten menu for our dinner guests.

Nanna, Grampy, Ee-ee and Teo-teo arrived just as you were finishing up the menu. I had drawn up an order form for you to tick too. Soon you were changed into your "waiter's attire" and it was dinner time. Ah Ma joined us too as Ah Kong had gone up to stay at the condo.

When everyone was seated, you went around to take their orders. You were so cute. My handsome little waiter comes complete with a little pencil tucked behind the ear:

Here's the handwritten menu (this was the original one written by mummy as a sample):

The little waiter busy taking orders:

Here you are holding up your order form which I had stuck to a hard cover book to make it easier for you to take orders:

After the full course was over, we sat around chatting and laughing and soon it was time for everyone to go home. That was the end of the first reunion dinner for the year. A few more to go...

A Little Reward for Evan

Daddy told you that if you did not cry for one whole week while he was away in Singapore (yup again..) he'd bring you to take the "Demon Drop Slide" in Adventure Zone. I know you tried really hard... and that weekend we made the trip. Daddy was supposed to come back on Saturday but he brought forward his flight to Friday night so that he could reward you as promised. 

You were supposed to go for Wushu but in the end you skipped lessons and we waited till Evelyn woke up then off we went. Daddy did not want you to have lunch first in case you decided to vomit while playing.

We arrived in the Adventure Zone at 12.30p.m. and mei mei upon arrival got excited and did a poo. So while daddy made payment and arrangement for you to play, Evelyn and I went straight to the washroom which thankfully had a changing table (although it was a very tight squeeze in the bathroom).

Soon you were going up and down the slides but avoiding the Demon Drop slide. I took one look at it and felt my legs turn to jelly. Here you were going down the slide which ends up in the ball pit:

After much convincing from daddy you went down the Demon Drop slide:

We stopped in between to have some sandwiches which they sold in the little tuck shop in Adventure Zone. Here you are all sweaty after the session.

You proclaimed the Adventure Zone to be more fun than the LEX Slide and wanted to come more times.

As for Evelyn, she had some fun watching you then shortly after she dozed off:

Evan's School Blues

It was a tough week of school. I'm not too sure for you or for daddy and I. Daddy had gotten back from Singapore after a busy week working there. You decided to cry like mad on Monday when it was time to go to school. You called me telling me that you did not want to go to school. In the end, we found out that last Friday you were told off by a prefect for not sitting properly. After talking to me on the phone and crying, you finally went to school.

Daddy got back on Monday night. On Tuesday, you cried again when I dropped you off. I had to stand around a while before you let me go back to work. On Wednesday, we dropped you off to school and you'd forgotten to wee wee before leaving home. Again you cried worrying about not being able to go to the toilet. When I reached the office car park, I received a call. There was a nice lady who saw you crying and took pity on you and used her phone to call me and let you talk to me. Sigh.. it was difficult for me to listen to you cry, but we had to be firm and insist that you still go to school.

This went on for the whole week. After Wednesday's incident, daddy refused to drop you to school. It got better. Hope it lasts....

Daddy and I were upset about your behaviour. But we were also disappointed that the prefect had to be so harsh on a Primary 1 student.. who is still trying to cope in adjusting to going to a new schooling environment. Then again, we know that the prefect is also just a young child and would not understand about what you are going through, coping in the new schooling environment.

We hope that this would not scar you about going to school..

Evelyn Turns

You've been trying to turn from your back to your chest for a while now. And when we woke up yesterday, I saw that you managed to turn on your chest. You accomplished this feat very quickly too!

Good job by our little girl.

Pizza Weekend with Evan

You love eating pizzas. And it is one of my favourite things to make. Easy and can be made anytime as we always have cheese of some sorts in the house. As I already knew in advance that Ah Kong and Ah Ma had dinner plans and daddy was still away, I bought some cherry tomatoes to add to our (many) cheese) pizza. Here's your smiley face pizza cooking in the oven:

 Ta-da:

Yummiest and nicest looking pizza made by assistant Chef Evan.*grin*

3 months old

Here's a picture of the both of you at 3 months. Evan at exactly 3 months and Evelyn at 3 months and 6 days. Yup, the rocker which was used by Evan Ko-ko is still in good condition for Evelyn to use. At birth you both looked more alike and now as Evelyn grows you don't look so similar anymore. But you both do have certain features which look the same.

Standard 1 Orientation for Evan

Today morning we woke up early and got ready. Orientation was to start at 8a.m. that day. Got you bathed and dressed then fed you breakfast and it was time to go to school. Not before I took some pictures of you. We had just got back late from KL the day before so no time for you to have a haircut. Doesn't matter...

Daddy dropped us off at school then went back to keep Evelyn company. We started  by waiting at the staircase nearby your classroom. I had thought that it was the school hall, but I was mistaken. Soon the children were brought upstairs to the real school hall. Children and parents were welcomed and briefed. After a Wushu demonstration and some information were shared on the school activities, the children headed back to their classrooms. Everything was in Mandarin. A good thing I had friends who were Mandarin speaking who could help translate the work for me and what was mentioned by the teacher. Textbooks and workbooks were given while the parents also submitted some forms which were given to us when we went to school in June to pick the classes. While that was done, you went with another teacher who brought you to important locations, such as the toilet and the canteen.

When all was settled, we headed home and as your textbooks were very yucky, we headed out to buy you a new set of textbooks. Looks like my little baby is all set for school next Wednesday.  

Evan's Concert and Graduation

30th September was an important day for you and a day my heart was bursting with pride. It was your concert and graduation ceremony from kindy. Sigh.. my little boy is growing up so fast before my eyes.

I was still in confinement and thank goodness Evelyn was discharged the day before. Daddy dropped you off and then seeing that there was already a queue of parents, he joined the queue. Mummy dressed up warmly and then headed to school in another car with Ah Kong and Ah Ma. After waiting for a while, we headed upstairs. As with last year, the school gave senior citizens priority to enter the hall, so Ah Kong and Ah Ma headed upstairs and got us prime seats *grin*.

When everything was ready and everyone seated, the concert began with speeches followed by the graduating children singing the national and state anthem. Next was the speech from the children. I am proud to say that you were one of them. You presented the speech in Bahasa Malaysia.  

We were so proud of you. You did really well and our hearts were bursting with pride as we watched you up on the stage. Then it was time for the presentation of the graduation scroll. You children came in dancing to an upbeat tune. It was so cute. Here you are waiting to receive your scroll:

And here you are receiving your scroll from Pastor Isaac:

Then it was time for the concert. Your dance "Lantern Festival" (as it was the Lantern Festival on that day)was with another class: 

The finale for the day was a medley of songs sung by all the children. Here you are standing in the corner of the choir (strategically right in front of us):

Then it was time to collect our children from the specified rooms. As usual it was a well organised and wonderful concert and graduation ceremony. The effort put in by the teachers really paid off well.